The invention is generally a wireless sensor system, and more particularly, a monitoring system.
Healthcare cost is an urgent issue. In the U.S., the cost for healthcare has reached 16% of the Gross National Product in 2004, equating to $1.88 trillion US dollars. The costs for infant healthcare are high due to the fact that the infant healthcare is highly labor intensive. For healthy infants, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (“SIDS”) is the most critical problem needed to be addressed. SIDS is defined as any sudden and unexplained death of an apparently healthy infant aged one month to one year. According to the National SIDS/Infant Death Resource Center, in 2004, SIDS was responsible for roughly 50 deaths per 100,000 births in the U.S. Although the SIDS rate has been reducing, due to the awareness in parents and nurses, SIDS is a cost still too high for any family to suffer the loss of a newborn. Reducing the sudden death rate in infants by an effective monitoring and alarm system is a challenge for researchers.
Although the causes of SIDS have not been thoroughly explained, respiratory deficiencies have been known as the most common reason. Inborn factors such as disorders in the lungs or glands, respiratory infections, and improper sleeping positions are possible causes. SIDS may happen to healthy infants without any identifiable physiological preconditions and usually happens during sleeping without any warning signs, such as crying, struggling or suffering. Therefore, an effective respiratory monitoring system may be a good way for early warning to reduce SIDS risk.
Infant monitoring systems, such as cardiopulmonary monitoring, vision monitoring, and oxygen consumption monitoring and multi-purpose monitoring are invasive. Such systems make the infant and the parents uncomfortable and are not as effective due to the unrecognizable signs of SIDS.
Additionally, any form of nitrogen oxide (NOX) at levels greater than 1 ppm can cause serious damages to human respiration and lung tissue. The small molecules can penetrate deeply into the sensitive parts of lungs causing or worsening respiratory diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis or aggravate existing heart disease. So monitoring NO2 plays an important role making working environments safer.